New Paltz mayor proposes eliminating free parking on Sundays

Seeing the writing on the wall, New Paltz Village Mayor Tim Rogers wants to consider hiking some fees to offset budget problems in the future. He’s looking at increases for parking meters as well as water and sewer rates, but he wants to impact the fewest people possible.

Changing the mechanical parking meters to accept a different amount is a costly process, and Rogers has no interest in it. Instead, he’s proposing simply eliminating Sunday as a day of rest from the cost. Parking meters serve two functions that the mayor touched upon during different parts of the discussion last week: they generate revenue, but they also turn over spaces. Rogers noted that keeping people returning to their cars on Sundays could lead to more business locally.

Another parking change Rogers would like to see is an increase to the fine for overtime parking. Right now, that’s $10 if paid within five days; the mayor suggests doubling it which would result in a “significant amount of new revenue for our village;” he estimates it could be $70,000. Adding Sunday to the metered days would result in another $30,000, after the parking officer was paid.

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More money in the general fund makes it easier to cover expenses like replacement trucks in the DPW garage; the sewer truck just obtained cost $240,000, for example.

Neither water nor sewer rates have had any increase since 2012, yet costs associated with those systems continue to rise. Water obtained from the New York City Department of Environmental Conservation — charged with managing the trillions of gallons of local rain water collected in city-controlled reservoirs throughout this and other watersheds — has risen 180% in the last ten years. Sewer equipment upgrades can easily run into millions of dollars.

That last round of increases established a tier system, under which higher-volume users pay much higher rates than most village residents. Rogers believes that increasing the rates of the two or three highest of the six tiers would relieve some of the financial pressure without impacting most voters, which is a very real issue: trustee Bill Murray noted that the cost of living in the village is a common topic of conversation when knocking on doors.

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Makes me have another reason to not go to New Paltz for anything. 8% tax hike this year and the Town still doesn’t have enough money?? Where’s all the money going and why are the taxes so high to begin with. So glad I don’t own or live in New Paltz. It’s a tourist trap and nothing else.

No. 1: Tax Churches! Absolutely, you tax churches even 5% of their annual take and you eliminate the
federal deficit. They are a haven for hiding money, massive real estate holdings, and much more. Tax them…you’ll even see individual taxes go down!

No. 2: Downtown Parking. First, allow parking only on the westbound side of Main Street between Prospect and Chestnut, and eliminate the parking on the Eastbound side — this will reduce the ‘squeeze’ up the hill and cut slowdowns by about 30%.

Second, develop the Public Parking lot on Plattekill Ave behind the Starbucks building and fronting the Smokes 4 Less building. The site grade would be easily capable of being excavated below street level
for one level of parking, then a street-grade parking level, and two additional levels of parking built above that. Giving a 4x increase in public parking spaces on the exact same footprint (taking the existing 70 spaces and creating a total of about 270 spaces – a major improvement). This also would reduce runoff because storm water management would be incorporated into the garage build, and the Plattekill-facing facade of
the building could have three street-level retail spaces and two levels of residential.

Third: Approve the proposed Hotel + Parking Development at ‘The Pit’. Again , this would add parking downtown in the site adjacent to a newly developed municipal parking deck/mixed use build. And it would provide high-quality hotel placement downtown which would be the only of its type in New Paltz – putting guests and visitors in WALKING distance to our downtown attractions.

Fourth: Just adding this – approve Zero Place and get more residents walking downtown.